Why Music Education Is Not Just for the “Talented”

What is the goal of public music education? Is it to encourage the talented few who may turn out to be Juilliard material? Or is it to create a broad base of educated musicians and critical thinkers, tomorrow’s passionate amateur musicians and smart audience members? Here in the United States, where facing across-the-board budget cuts in the arts is a real challenge in almost every school, the former framework is gaining ground. But a few great thinkers and educators are speaking up for the importance of universal music education, and they have ideas for how to create it.

Dr. Larry Livingston, in a recent symposium lecture on music education, suggests new frameworks for music educators. Firstly, he says, music education programs must strive to include as many students as possible, and make inclusion a central goal. In order to include more students, programs must “broaden the base” of the music curriculum. Teach songwriting. Teach blues. Teach mariachi. Teach hip-hop and computer music editing. By fostering kids’ existing musical interests, educators build the foundation for lifelong involvement in the arts, because critical thinking skills learned in one idiom are transferable to any other.

A great part of this goal, Livingston says, we must “demythologize” the idea that classical music is better than all other music. As Livingston repeated throughout his lecture, “It’s just music.” The goal is to connect young people with music-making in a way that interests them, no matter the genre.

Livingston emphasized conceptual teaching methods as a way to introduce students to broader critical thinking and listening skills. When a student, or group of students, makes a mistake, Livingston says, we must teach them to ask their own critical questions about what’s going on. Livingston offers a common example: band students rushing in the seventh measure. Instead of simply instructing the students not to rush, Livingston urges educators to ask, “Why are you rushing in measure seven? What are the conceptual issues at play here? Do you have the fastest note values? Are you louder than everybody else?” By empowering students to work through problems themselves, music educators train students to become lifelong independent learners, of music, or of any subject.

Livingston’s goal is to promote music education for everyone–not just for Juilliard hopefuls. Music education, he says, is about allowing all students to create individual relationships with music, whether or not they choose it as a vocation. Our future musical culture, he says, is in the hands of today’s innovative music educators.

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